Joy has been working with an eye aid from ExerciseYourEyes.com the past few days. It’s $200 and a lot of people think this would be of questionable value since they don’t think it works; we don’t know yet if it will work or not. Many people think eye exercises have no effect on changing near or far-sightedness but a few people think they do have an effect (Aldous Huxley was a believer, for example).

Be that as it may, most people who use a computer or terminal for any extended period worry about their vision and their comfort. Bob thinks the most important consideration is the chair. Have a comfortable chair and lean back in it once in a while. The standard advice for chair height is that when you are looking down at the keyboard it should be about waist height. Most office chairs have height adjustment; if yours doesn’t, use cushions.

In the matter of vision, the most frequent advice we’ve read over many years is to change focus as you work. We have an outside view and Bob looks from the screen to the outside frequently without thinking about it. Joy does not and this may account in part for her vision problem. Changing focus in an office cubicle is more difficult but you can still look up from the screen to a bulletin board or the part of the wall where you posted the cartoons.